Bay Area storms: Another round of ‘dangerous’ wind, rain expected to hit Bay Area
The latest storm to hit the Bay Area is expected to arrive late Sunday night and continue through Tuesday, meteorologists say
Another windy deluge is expected to slam into the Bay Area early this week, leading to concerns about flooding along the region’s rivers, while also raising the specter of widespread power outages from wind-battered trees falling onto power lines.
The latest atmospheric river-fed storm is expected to begin impacting the Bay Area late Sunday night — first dropping rain over the North Bay before moving south overnight toward the Peninsula, the East Bay and the South Bay early Monday morning, said Brayden Murdock, a National Weather Service meteorologist. He warned residents to prepare for the storm by signing up for emergency alerts, given the high likelihood of flooding and high winds in parts of the Bay Area.
“This is going to be dangerous,” Murdock said.
The storm marks the latest atmospheric river to drench Northern California over the last couple of weeks, whipsawing the region from one of its driest three-year runs in recorded history to a state of perpetual flood risk. Still, even though the recent wet weather has begun to alleviate drought conditions across Northern California, experts say it has yet to fully end the region’s historic drought.
The National Weather Service issued a flood watch through Tuesday for almost the entire Bay Area. Among the rivers most at risk of flooding are the Russian River near Guerneville; Alameda Creek near Niles Canyon and Sunol, Arroyo de la Laguna at Verona in Alameda County; Coyote Creek at Milpitas and at Edenvale; Pacheco Creek near Dunneville in the South Bay; and the San Lorenzo River in Santa Cruz County.
The creeks most at risk of flooding in Santa Clara County included Uvas Creek along Highway 101 in Gilroy; San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto; Ross Creek at Cherry Avenue in San Jose; Upper Penitencia Creek at Mabury and King roads in San Jose; Guadalupe River at West Alma Avenue in San Jose; Sunnyvale East Channel at Tasman Drive in Sunnyvale; and West Little Llagas Creek in Morgan Hill.
The first drops of rain are expected to begin falling over the North Bay around 9 p.m. Sunday, with the heaviest bands of rain hitting about an hour later, Murdock said. In San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, the first rain will begin falling an hour or two before midnight, with the heaviest rain hitting a few hours before sunrise on Monday.
The heaviest downpours should begin to subside by about noon Monday, though chances for additional precipitation should linger through Tuesday.
Most of the Bay Area — including San Francisco and Oakland — could see 2 to 4 inches of rain by Tuesday, Murdock said. San Jose is expected to see closer to 2 inches from this storm.
The heaviest rainfall should fall over the waterlogged Santa Cruz Mountains, where 5 to 7 inches of rain is expected to fall, with a few places seeing as much as 8 inches. To the south, the Santa Lucia Mountains along the Big Sur coast could see even more rain, with forecasts calling for that area to receive up to 10 inches of rain in some spots.
In addition, high winds could pose a significant threat to the region, with gusts expected to hit 70 to 80 mph across the Bay Area’s highest peaks, Murdock said. Throughout the region’s urban centers, wind gusts could routinely hit 35 to 45 mph — once again raising the risk of power outages from trees falling onto power lines.
“This is also going to be a wind event,” Murdock said. “Very strong winds — and when you do have strong winds after seeing plenty of moisture in the soil, you can see trees fall.”
Later this week, three additional storms fed by atmospheric rivers streaming across the Pacific Ocean are expected to hit Northern California. While none of them are expected to be as powerful as the storm hitting late Sunday night and Monday, they could still cause flood damage in parts of the Bay Area, said Michael Anderson, California state climatologist.
“These next storms are really going to start seeing some flood stages be reached,” said Anderson, during a call with reporters Saturday. “There’s a lot to keep an eye on and a lot to track.”